


Familiarity

by dakeyras



Series: Naruto Fantasy Week 2020 Oneshots [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Child Uzumaki Naruto, Domestic Fluff, Familiars, Fluff, Gardens & Gardening, Gen, Hatake Kakashi is a Good Teacher, Naruto Fantasy Week, No Plot/Plotless, Pakkun - Freeform, Parent Hatake Kakashi, Small Kids Can Have A Little Weapon As A Treat, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:13:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24996679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dakeyras/pseuds/dakeyras
Summary: Sometimes Kakashi worries he’s coddling the boy. His own father was a brutal taskmaster, and one of Kakashi’s worst memories is of an archery session where he was too short to draw the bow back. “Make bullseyes, not excuses, boy,” his father had thundered.Kakashi had learned from the experience, though. Naruto wasn’t allowed to touch any of the sharp weapons until he was six.(Or: Kakashi is pretty sure he's doing the right thing, most of the time anyway, but kids are *complicated*)
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Naruto Fantasy Week 2020 Oneshots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1809535
Comments: 7
Kudos: 178
Collections: Naruto Fantasy Week 2020





	Familiarity

**Author's Note:**

> For Naruto Fantasy Week 2020: Prompt is 'Familiars'
> 
> Each submission I'm making has a different setting, style and genre.

Two old men are arguing, a newborn child sleeping in a makeshift crib behind them.

“Are you sure he’s the right man for the job?”

“The will is very clear. And after all, he _was_ close to both parents.”

“I just can’t imagine him as a father, is all.”

“I’m Minato’s predecessor _and_ successor, so it’s my decision. Unless you want the job? You were his teacher, after all.”

“I really hope it works out, that’s all I’m saying.”

“We’ll have to see what happens. Maybe he’ll mellow a bit, with a child to care for?”

“That’ll be the day!”

-O-

“You’re holding the sword wrong.” Kakashi patiently adjusts Naruto’s grip. The pudgy fingers struggle to close around the sword – more of a dagger, really – but that’s to be expected, given his age. “Here, do it like Uncle Kakashi.”

Sometimes Kakashi worries he’s coddling the boy. His own father was a brutal taskmaster, and one of Kakashi’s worst memories is of an archery session where he was too short to draw the bow back. “Make bullseyes, not excuses, boy,” his father had thundered.

Kakashi had learned from the experience, though. Naruto wasn’t allowed to touch any of the sharp weapons until he was six.

“Perhaps that’s enough for today,” Kakashi says. Naruto looks up at him, all big blue eyes and mountains of golden hair. When he smiles Kakashi can see the gap where his first tooth fell out last week.

“Can I play with Pakkun?” he asks. Kakashi nods and his familiar runs over. The child and the dog scamper off, looking for sticks to throw.

Kakashi leaves them to it. There’s nothing but meadows and forest nearby, and Pakkun is smart enough to keep them out of trouble. He packs away the day’s gear, then looks over his property.

A thick hedgerow, overgrown with dog roses and hazel, gives him plenty of privacy. It marks out a four-acre plot of land that holds all of Kakashi’s worldly possessions, most of them carefully stowed in the large armoury or the smaller cottage beside it.

The armoury holds all their weapons, armour and training dummies. The cottage is where he and Naruto eat and sleep. The small gardening shed has stacks of untouched tools and seeds. Other than that, there’s a muddy square marked out in the meadow out front. Looking at how little grass remains on the training area, he wonders if he’s pushing the boy too much.

-O-

It’s evening, and a small fire crackles in the hearth.

“Go on, eat up.”

Naruto shakes his head mutely.

“Why won’t you eat this nice soup?” Kakashi tries again. He eyes the soup in question. It sits on the table, a putrescent green. He swears it’s eyeing him back. “It’s really very, um, nourishing.”

Naruto cups a hand over his face, so his voice comes out muffled. “If I start talking, will you throw the soup in my mouth again?”

“I won’t, I promise,” Kakashi says. Honestly, it was _one time,_ and now Naruto mistrusts him every time they eat.

Naruto ponders for a moment, then slowly lowers his hand. Kakashi smiles, encouraging him. “It tastes really really bad. All the stuff in it is gross.”

“It’s not gross,” Kakashi says. Naruto has a point about the taste, though. He wracks his brain for some sort of encouragement. “If you eat it all up, we’ll do something fun tomorrow.”

Face screwed up like a prune, Naruto forces a few spoonfuls down. Kakashi pretends not to notice as he slips the rest of his dinner to Pakkun. It’s a small victory, but at least he’s got some vegetables into the boy.

“So what are we doing tomorrow?” Naruto asks. His bowl is licked clean, although there are suspicious bits of dog slobber on it. Kakashi is turned away, flicking dead leaves into the fire.

“Well, I was thinking that we need a new training square. We’ll pick a patch with nice grass, that’s good and flat.” Kakashi sneaks a look at Naruto, who doesn’t seem enthusiastic. “And I guess we might as well turn the old area into a vegetable patch or something. Make some use of the churned mud.”

“That sounds super fun! I want to plant carrots and peas and tomatoes and cucumbers and definitely no cabbages!” Naruto yelled, launching himself at Kakashi’s legs and hugging them.

Kakashi smiled and ruffled his hair. “Then you’ll have to make sure to go to bed on time so you’ll be full of energy for tomorrow.”

-O-

After five minutes of haggling, Kakashi and Naruto agree that there can be one row of cabbage plants. Most of the new vegetable patch is reserved for Naruto. He wants hundreds of carrots and tomatoes, but Kakashi is able to talk him into adding parsnip as well. Naruto is also set on putting aside an empty spot for Pakkun to dig in. “He should get to plant his bones if he wants,” Naruto declares, and Kakashi just gives in.

They split up the work; Kakashi does the digging and planting, and Naruto runs around shouting and getting mud all over his face. By the evening they’re both tired but pleased. The first rows have been planted. Kakashi will stagger out the planting, so the vegetables aren’t all ripe at the same time.

“So when will the carrots be ripe? Can we harvest them tomorrow?”

Kakashi sets Naruto on his lap and breaks the bad news to him. “The carrots, and all the other vegetables, will take months to be ready.” At Naruto’s puzzled look he explains further. “It will take lots and lots of days, like a hundred days.” A hundred is the biggest number that Naruto knows.

“But I’ll be _old_ by the time I can eat the carrots!”

Kakashi searches for a distraction and spots a small watering can in the corner of the shed. “If you water the plants every morning, they’ll grow faster. Here, Pakkun will go with you and help.”

Pakkun shoots him a betrayed look, but Kakashi is unmoved. All’s fair in child-rearing, as far as he’s concerned. And after all, Pakkun is his familiar. What are those for, if not distracting small kids?

Kakashi carefully pushes aside the memories of Pakkun on a muddy field, muzzle wet with blood as Kakashi rallies his troops for another bloody charge into the maw of hell.

Pakkun sneaks off to sleep in Naruto’s bed again that night, and Kakashi pretends not to notice. The rules are very clear: no dogs on the bed. It’s getting harder for Kakashi to avoid the muddy pawprints all over the sheets, but he manages.

-O-

“Try this,” Kakashi says, and hands Naruto a crossbow. His own training serves as a good reminder of what is and isn’t an appropriate weapon for an eight-year-old. Bows are out until Naruto is _at least_ ten.

Naruto inexpertly strings the crossbow and works the winch, then sets a bolt in place. They’re shooting at hollowed-out pumpkins with scary faces carved into them – not too scary, though. Kakashi doesn’t want Naruto to have nightmares.

This year, they’ve added pumpkins and broccoli to the vegetable garden, as well as some rhubarb. Naruto insisted on some flowers as well, so Kakashi begrudgingly bought a pair of real rose bushes. They also went on an ‘expedition’ to dig up some wildflowers from the next hill over.

The rose bushes take a lot of hard work to keep alive, but Kakashi remembers the satisfaction at getting his first proper red rose out of them. Pakkun is banned from the flower section after he tried to dig up a mousehole and ruined a patch of transplanted cowslips. Neither Naruto’s nor Pakkun’s puppy-dog eyes moved Kakashi on that point.

The first bolt goes wide. “Don’t worry,” Kakashi says, soothing. He knows that Naruto’s a good shot, but his nerves can get the best of him. “Take a deep breath and try again. There’s no rush.” By the end of the winter, he’ll have Naruto putting six bolts a minute into the targets at fifty yards.

He looks about for something to keep his attention. The cottage is looking a little shabby; perhaps it could do with a lick of paint?

“We’re taking a break from training today,” he announces at breakfast the next morning. Naruto has learned that breaks from training mean something exciting is happening instead, so he perks up over his porridge.

“What are we doing?” he asks, eager.

Kakashi smiles and chucks a paintbrush at him. “We’re redecorating the cottage.” He’s pleased to see Naruto dodge the brush while cramming porridge into his mouth as fast as it will go.

The front of the cottage is covered in faded, peeling white paint. Kakashi wants to redo it in the same colour, to neaten it up. Naruto wants to paint the whole thing orange, because he loves orange and wants everything to be his favourite colour, even the floor and ceiling. Eventually, they compromise.

The house walls stay white, but the door and the window frames will be orange, and Naruto is allowed to paint the back wall however he wants. Kakashi stares him down when Naruto suggests painting the armoury orange instead and leaving the house white. The armoury is _not_ to be touched.

Naruto gets to do his orange sections first. Kakashi waits for them to dry, then watches Naruto pout as he puts an even white coat over all the ‘accidental’ splashes of orange on the cottage walls. He relents and puts Naruto on his shoulders so he can add a swirling orange pattern, just under the drainpipe and wrapping all around the house.

The cottage looks like a staid peasant home that’s under attack by a monstrous orange fungus. Looking at Naruto’s smile, Kakashi decides that it’s the nicest home he’s ever had.

The mural on the back wall will have to wait until tomorrow. Naruto yawns and almost dozes off in his arms.

In the morning, Naruto outlines his amazing plans for the mural. It’s going to be _this_ tall and _this_ wide, and show off all of Naruto’s cool tricks, and be absolutely covered in orange. Kakashi smiles, and helps as best he can. Pakkun contributes some orange paw prints all over the wall, the kitchen floor, and Kakashi’s trousers.

They manage to paint a carrot, a pumpkin and half an orange frog before they run out of paint. Kakashi promises they’ll finish the job after the next time he goes shopping.

-O-

Shortly after Naruto’s tenth birthday, Kakashi becomes worried. Naruto isn’t finishing his breakfast. Every morning he sneaks the last few spoonfuls of porridge, or the crust of his toast, or on Saturdays a few pieces of sausage and egg, into the pocket of his jacket. By the time training starts, the food is gone.

Presumably, Naruto is throwing part of his food away, although Kakashi has no idea why. Is he ill? Does he not like eating breakfast any more?

Kakashi is relieved when he finds a huge, warty toad in a wooden box with airholes hidden near the water barrel. The toad can clamber out of the box, and does so regularly, but apparently he’s gotten used to being fed and is always in position when Naruto goes to ‘water the plants’.

The two of them – three if you include Pakkun, and four if you count the toad – sit down for a chat on responsible pet care, and then ‘Mr Slimy’ is upgraded to an inside-the-house box. He has to explain to Naruto why they can’t paint the toad, though.

Soon, Naruto is trying to teach Mr Slimy tricks. Kakashi doesn’t bother explaining what a waste of time that is, knowing Naruto learns best from experience. The months go by, and Naruto tells Kakashi that Mr Slimy thinks his name is silly. After a few days’ deliberation, Mr Slimy is rechristened as ‘Big Toad’. Big Toad is definitely big and getting bigger, and Kakashi is about to give Naruto some advice on weight loss for pets when he notices that Big Toad is large rather than fat. In fact, he’s much larger than any toad has any right to be.

And then Naruto shows off Big Toad’s secret trick, where the toad climbs onto Naruto’s head and sits there. It looks incredibly smug as it stares into Kakashi’s eyes. Naruto feeds it a scrap of lettuce as a reward.

“Pakkun,” Kakashi murmurs, “I think you have familiar competition.”


End file.
